A Paradox of Inclusion in Cities: Homemaking of Refugees and Natives in Urban Space

Abstract In this research, we aimed to explore a paradox of inclusion that emerges in the homemaking activities of refugees and natives. On one side, natives perceive threat from refugees and tend to preserve their home by excluding them from urban spaces. On the other side, refugees strive to make a new home and seek to regain homely feelings. Therefore, we examined inclusion both as an outcome variable (willingness for inclusion in the native context) and as a predictor (perceived inclusion in the refugee context). One distinctive aspect of this study is that both natives and refugees have comparably similar ethnocultural backgrounds (either Kurds or Arabs) re-encountered after the Syrian proxy war. A total of 421 natives (Study 1, M age = 37.1, SD = 14.3; 50% women), and 889 refugees (Study 2, M age = 36.59; SD = 12.51; 62% women) living in Mardin (a city in Turkey bordering Syria) were surveyed. Both groups of participants were asked about their daily life activities across places (dwelling, neighborhood, city center) as related to homemaking. In addition, natives were asked about the extent they perceived threat from, and ascribed social reputation to refugees, whereas refugees were asked about the extent they were satisfied with the urban life and spaces they felt homely. Our results highlight the importance of focusing on the inclusion paradox in the context of mobility (including forced migration), which generates a new disadvantaged layer in society even among people with similar ethnocultural backgrounds when one group is regarded as refugees and the other natives.